Breakfast Area - Ceiling Light

I needed a light fixture for my city home and absolutely refused to pay full price. 

In fact my goal was to furnish entire home with NICE second-hand finds. 

Here is what I came home with one day: $10.00! 

Of course there was more to it... but I forgot to take a picture before I took it apart for painting.

Sorry :)

I spray painted it dark gray, it was almost silvery and we all love it!

And a close up!

It truly looks nice and classy in our Breakfast Area

That fabric on the chair by the window is the future drapery for that window.  Entire home is done in those creams, soft blues and browns.

Here is the "before" of that same space...

More transformations coming soon!

Our Home in the City ~ Kitchen ~

About three months ago we have purchased a second home in the City.  We live in the country and have been commuting back and forth for about 5 years. 

It wouldn't be a problem, but when you have to get up at 4:30am Monday to Friday... be in the city by 6:00am and stay there till 6-7-8 at night... at some point it gets to you and you simply have enough. 

So the solution presented itself in the form of a home, walking distance (700m) to where my son trains (figure skating - dance) and to his highschool and 3 minutes by car from my work. Could I ask for more? 

Now we (older son & myself) stay in the city Monday to Friday and go home for the weekends.  My husband works on jobs up north most of the time and my younger son is still in Higschool too.  We usually never had time to be together during the week when we all lived together. 

Now, we make a point of spending every weekend doing something fun as a family at our place in the country. 

So this is what the "house in the city" looked like when we bought it:

~Kitchen~

That will stay the same for awhile... until IKEA has a kitchen sale.  I refuse to go with anything else... I love Ikea pullouts, that's what I have in my other house. Love it!

~Breakfast Area~
Just before the previous owners moved out...

When we got the keys...

There was a nice maple flooring almost everywhere on the main floor, but it was installed wrong and there were gaps between the boards.  We decided to pull it out and install a new, pre-finished wood flooring. 

Here are our sons at work... following in their father's footsteps :)

Not bad ...

You will see the after soon...

Master Bedroom Flooring

We've been in our "new" home almost 5 years now(!), so time came to re-buff the floors. 

We have beautiful ash floors, custom stained in warm brown with red undertones.  At first we opted for a high gloss finish, since it was most durable and we have a cat, who at that time was quite frisky and we were afraid, that when she runs around, the floors will get damaged.

This is what our bedroom floors looked like two weeks ago.

Since the cat is 5 years older spends most of her time sleeping... this time we chose to go with a satin finish. 

This is after the first coat, one more to go:

I can't wait for that last coat, so I can start moving the furniture back into the room.

Crowning the Master Bedroom

 After that long painting process, we were finally done. Paint colour just the way we wanted, calm, welcoming and soothing. But there was still something missing.

The wall seamed unfinished still.

 So we decided to add the Crown Moulding to those bare walls...

It always amazes me that my Hubby knows how to do all those things at home, lately he has been teaching our son to do the same.

Here's my talented Husband...

And here is our son...

 

This is what those walls look like today:

Now what I need is an old headboard from Salvation Army that I could paint white just like this one from My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia

Here is how Kristin worked her magic in the guest bedroom.  

I LOVE the look! 

 
 

My Parent's Reno

My Parents have lived in their home for about 15 years.  In the Spring they decided to put the house up for sale and move a bit further South, so their garden growing season would be longer. 

They love to grow vegetables.  Their long-time friends already lived there and so the decicion was made. 

The house, however was not as ready as my Parents...

It needed alot of work.  Mostly cosmetic, but non-the-less.

You've already seen the staircase, here are some pictures of the Master Bedroom "After"

We didn't even paint... the idea came from that fun bed cover.  Don't you just love it?   I know, I know everything is dusty blue and white nowadays, but I wanted to have some fun in the Master Bedroom.  So we re-arranged the furniture, and I went through what seamed like thousands of bed sheets in their linen closet...

Finally I found those hot pink and orange sheets and pillow cases.

Those worked perfectly with the new bed cover, that we both loved so much. 

My Mom made the curtains from a fabric I bought years ago for $2.00/m.  The white lace curtains were there to start with. 

We didn't have anything nice to hang on the walls, but I had 4 IKEA frames... I needed something nice to place in those frames...

I bought Watercolor paper at Walmart and searched flower paintings and pictures on line.
Than I printed those on the Watercolor paper, cut to size and fitted them into the frames.

Those were placed above the bedside tables on both sides of the bed.

and two more...

What do you think?

This will also works with your own pictures... In fact, I love to take photos of my favorite garden flowers... than I print my own pics on the watercolor paper... Instant ART!